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A Renewed Commitment to Liberation and Love
How to Build Software with Love (A Conversation)

Hello, World… Cup

We’re nearing the end of the World Cup. Even though it’s a little late in the game (no pun intended) with only three matches left, I’ve decided to join in on the World Cup software fun. An intro to a programming language usually starts off with the traditional “Hello, World!” program. So, in honor of that, … Continued

TeX + Typography = TeXcellent

Recently I’ve been working on adjusting the typography of some of our client-facing legal documents—just some general housekeeping to spruce up things that sometimes get overlooked. For the graphic design side of my brain, my first instinct for laying out lots of copy tends to be a program like Quark or InDesign—a robust page layout … Continued

Vague and Unfinished Thoughts on Typefaces and Coding

I never thought I’d get to this point. The point where I use the command line every day, and weeks go by without firing up any of the Adobe CC programs. When I made the move to Software for Good, I did so with the intention of making this kind of transition, but I don’t … Continued

Software is Not Always All About Software

In June 2013, at Hack for MN, few civic-minded individuals gravitated towards an idea and extension of E-Democracy’s BeNeighbors.org program. We imagined a technology to help neighbors connect at a hyper-local (and block-level) by giving people the ability to share information, and control how far they share that information. The work we produced at the end … Continued

Grace Hopper Conference 2013

“What’s better than peace, love, and estrogen? I mean, come on, ladies! Am I right?! Am I right?!” Last week, I volunteered at the Grace Hopper Global Celebration of Women in Computing Conference. 4,600 women charging the streets of downtown Minneapolis was truly a sight to see, and even after only four days with them, I … Continued

An Agile Example

I recently attended “Foundations of Agile Development,” a course hosted by 3back Scrum Training with Agile Development Trainer Liz Weatherhead. The course was perfect for getting Agile concepts and vocabulary straight and understanding the differences between SCRUM, Agile Development, Test Drive Development, Retrospectives, and Kanban. The class started with two visual exercises to explain the … Continued

TEDxUMN – 2013

I had the chance to volunteer at TedxUMN recently … what a fun event for empowering individuals to make a difference in the world! There were 10 dynamic speakers, and each and every talk was a must see. Some of my favorite moments, and a few words of wisdom that stuck with me: David Ernst … Continued

Tips for an Innovative Health Care Startup

A few weeks ago I attended one of the newest tech meetup groups in the Minneapolis – Healthcare.mn. The event was hosted at CoCo Minneapolis, and saw around 40 attendees with experience ranging from local health-business founders to MD’s and UofM medical students, to health and innovation enthusiasts. Marti Nyman, the speaker at the meetup, is the … Continued